The Yankees beat the A's 6-3 last night and they looked good doing it. The offense, whose struggles have been well documented, tagged Tyson Ross for three homers. One came off the bat of Mark Teixeira, the poster boy of the team's issues at the plate.

"The last two games have been good for us," he said. "We're used to scoring that many runs. More normal for us I think."

Nick Swisher, who also homered, said the team has adopted a simplified approach. After the game, he repeated a piece of advice from his grandmother: "Just hit the damn ball."

The question is whether the Yankees can vault themselves into a sustained run of success at the plate. If they do, home runs will likely be a key. The team has scored 52 percent of its runs this season on the long ball. As Teixeira pointed out after the game, the homer has its merits.

When it comes to hitting with runners in scoring position, Teixeira said it's possible to hit into plenty of bad luck. With homers, defense is eliminated from the equation.

"Home runs don't get caught, and we're a team that's used to hitting a lot of them," he said. "And we'd like to hit a little bit more."

The Yankees today face an old friend in Bartolo Colon. He'll be opposed by lefty CC Sabathia.